Verizon, Dominion hear complaints on outages from public

And utility companies are still getting an earful from their customers.

One of the hardest hit areas in the derecho was Falls Church.

Tonight, residents spoke out about storm response during a public meeting with Verizon and Dominion Power officials. And the utilities agreed there were some problems.

Dominion officials admit, while they're generally pleased with how they responded to the storm, too many automated calls were made telling customers they did have power when they didn't. And they say they need to get better at estimating restoration times.

Verizon's big flop, as documented in the company's own post-storm report, came when failing equipment knocked out 911 service for hours to more than a million area residents.

A Verizon spokesperson says a series of tests have been conducted to make sure in the event another major storm hits that the 911 system will work as it should.